1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for the hand routering of alphanumeric characters, designs, and the like in the surfaces of workpieces such as boards, laminates, and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of hand-held routers to produce letters and other characters in wood boards and the like is well known. Generally, a template or tracing of the character to be routed is laid over the workpiece or adjacent thereto and traced by the operator to create the desired figure. Numerous devices available have a limited ability to operate in conjunction with various sizes of workpieces. Typical shortcomins with the currently available devices include limitations on sizes and varieties of characters presented by the availability of templates and tracings. Likewise, devices with the ability to accept only a limited range of workpiece sizes tend to have limited flexibility to produce various figures and designs on a variety of materials.
Several devices currently available attempt to overcome these shortcomings. However, these devices do not provide the capability of routering a string of characters of practically unlimited size and complexity on workpieces of variable width and practically unlimited length. For instance, the Obradvich U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,657 teaches a device for creating unlimited length dados, grooves and the like wherein a router is fixtured in the apparatus and the apparatus is moved longitudinally along the workpiece to create the cut and the fixtured router can be laterally moved to generate cuts wider than the bit or rectangular designs. However, the Obradvich device has certain limitations on the figures it can create and does not provide for operation of the router independent of the fixture. Likewise, the Lundquist U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,168; the French U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,130; and the Wing U.S. Pat. No. 3,199,556 all show adjustable holding jigs for use with dedicated or composite templates and tend to have operational limits.